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Topic: humidity problem (Read 833 times)

What can I do to up the humidity in my cheese cave? I am using one of our refrigerators. The temp stays at a constant 54* turned down on almost the lowest setting. I have dishes of open water in there and every day I boil a small pot of water and then set it in there. It is under 20% most of the time and the boiling water only helps temporarily.

My fridge requires less effort to manage the humidity as I filled it - to the point that I leave the door open to keep it down to 85%. I initially used a microfiber cloth suspended on skewers into the dish of water to increase the wick area. Now it sits in the condensate drip bowl providing just a little extra surface area.

Mine's only a 3 cubic foot dorm fridge, so you may need more aggressive effort. Some people have added a computer fan blowing on a wick like mine. An easy solution if you can find one that fits is to put a small humidifier in the fridge.

curd nerd

bobe ,good idea , but a much cheaper option is to buy several of those cheap plastic 'storage" containers that are readily found in those one dollar type shops

the sizes are from 5x litres to 80x litres , they have a sealable lid so clearly you would need to drill some small holes in lid and even place a few drops of water on the inside bottom for the 5x litre one , to75ml for the 80x litre one

the temp would soon equalise to the fridge and the RH would quickly rise to circa 85/95%

I use containers for those that need higher RH and you're right it is cheap and effective. The down side for my small space is that it limits how many cheeses I can fit. It was a happy discovery that filling the fridge with cheese results in proper humidity. It's a bit less maintenance, too. A quick wipe and I'm done. It's also easier to get some fresh air, open and close the door a couple times. Whatever works for you.

We didn't have this problem when I used a dorm fridge. I am using a regular sized fridge now but will look into a humidifier of some sort. All my cheeses are vacuum sealed instead of waxing but I do use the containers with a wet sponge inside for mold ripened cheeses with good results. I just can't seem to get the large area humid enough with my current methods.

Curd Nerd has the solution for your partial load of mold ripened cheeses. Maintaining humidity in a smallish box is easy. I assumed incorrectly that you were looking to do a bunch of natural rind cheeses.